APRA

The Parliamentary Arm of Government is always making changes to Superannuation Laws, however many of these law are just ignored by the Executive Arm of Government if the self interest and in some cases pecuniary interests of Public Servants takes priority.

APRA has released a Superannuation Guidance Note SGN 110.1 on the “Fit and Proper” requirements expected of the Trustees of Government Regulated Superannuation Funds, however this is essentially a meaningless document full of “motherhood statements“.

However the reality is that no qualifications are required to be a Director of a corporate Trustee of a Government Regulated Superannuation Fund. People with no understanding of the law or their legal obligations as Trustee Directors are appointed or elected to positions where they are responsible for hundreds of Millions of Dollars and in some cases Billions of dollars.

If dishonest conduct or breaches to RSE Licence conditions by Trustee Directors or Responsible Officers is reported to APRA, APRA takes no enforcement action.

It is a condition imposed on all RSE Licences under Section 29E of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 that the Trustee must:

Comply at all times with RSE Licensee Law, and

Ensure that the Duties of the Trustee are properly performed.

However APRA routinely turns a “blind eye” to serious contraventions of RSE Licensee Law and cases where Trustees have failed to properly perform their duties and are in Breach of Trust of the Governing Rules of the Fund.

APRA has the power under Section 29EB of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 to “direct” that a Trustee comply with the conditions imposed on the Trustee’s RSE licence, however this power is rarely if ever used, even in cases where Officers of the Trustee have engaged in criminal conduct such as the contravention of subsection 1017C(2) and/or subsection 1017C(5) of the Corporations Act 2001 (which also form a condition on the RSE Licence). {Refer to Items 296C and 297B under Schedule 3 of the Corporations Act 2001}.

Officers of dishonest Trustees attempt to conceal the very Trust Documents that will reveal massive frauds against the Membership and APRA looks the other way!

The Public Servants at APRA have generous and secure taxpayer funded Superannuation Entitlements so why should these Public Servants put their own entitlements at risk by attempting to protect the superannuation entitlements of the Australian Public?

A Member of a Government Regulated Superannuation Fund might lodge a notification of a contravention of the Trustee’s RSE Licence along the following lines:

“The Trustee of my Superannuation Fund has refused to provide me with copies of the Trust Deed and Governing Rules of my Fund so that I can check my lawful superannuation entitlement. It is a criminal offence for a Trustee to contravene the Trustee’s disclosure obligations under subsection 1017C(5) of the Corporations Act 2001. Can APRA please give a direction under Section 12EB of the SIS Act for the Trustee to provide me with copies of these prescribed Trust Documents”.

Now instead of taking enforcement action over the criminal conduct of the Trustee and the illegal concealment of the Trust Deed and Governing Rules, APRA will respond with a letter like this:

“You have raised a complaint with APRA in relation to the determination of your superannuation benefit, APRA is not a “complaint handling agency” and therefore cannot assist individuals with complaints in relation to how their superannuation benefits have been determined by the Fund Trustee. We are sorry that we cannot assist you“.

So the criminal conduct of the Trustee is ignored. The denial of the right to check the Member’s superannuation benefit is ignored. Instead APRA fabricates its own “Straw Man” Complaint and claims that the Member has lodged a “complaint” as to how his or her personal benefit was determined by the Trustee and APRA cannot assist with this (ie APRA‘s) Complaint since APRA is not a “complaint handling agency“.

If the Member persists then APRA will tell the Member to go to the “complaint handling agency” the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal, however the Tribunal is not a “Superannuation Law Enforcement Agency” and cannot deal with an alleged contravention of subsection 1017C(5) of the Corporations Act 2001.

If the Member did lodge a Complaint with the Tribunal, the Chairperson is supposed to refer the alleged contravention of a RSE Licence condition back to APRA as required by Section 64 of the Superannuation (Resolution of Complaints) Act 1993!

So this Member has become a ball in the Bureaucratic Games with APRA denying it has jurisdiction to deal with a contravention of RSE Licensee Law and then falsely claiming that the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal has jurisdiction to deal with an alleged contravention of Superannuation Law.

So do you believe that your Super is Safe if Public Servants shirk their statutory duties and play games when $100,000s of your hard earned superannuation entitlement could be at stake?

If you want to be able to safeguard you superannuation entitlements become a member of Australian Guardians today.